Four Apartment Owners May Be Charged : Huntington Beach Official ‘Disgusted’ by Code Violations

At least four of the 10 landlords of dilapidated buildings on Huntington Beach’s Commodore Circle are expected to face criminal charges as a result of a city inspection Monday.

City housing inspector Susan Tully combed through more than half of the cul-de-sac’s 80 apartments, giving high marks to some owners and asking others to finish up repairs in progress by next week.

The news was less encouraging, however, for Commodore’s newest landlords, Enrique Cervantes of Norwalk, Bobby Muse of Mission Viejo and Art Cortez of Westminster. Their buildings--7642, 7652 and 7662 Commodore Circle--were the worst on the block, according to Tully.

“I was really disgusted,” said Tully, who found among other violations a bucket filled with cockroaches at 7662 and a dead mouse in 7642 Commodore Circle.

“I would say little effort was made to comply” with the city housing code, she added. “Entire walls and floors need to be redone. They still have serious structural problems and health violations.”

City officials said Tully’s report would become the first step in a process that is expected to lead to the filing of criminal charges against the offending landlords. Her report will be presented to City Atty. Gail Hutton, who has indicated that landlords found not to be in compliance with city code conditions will be prosecuted.

Tully said she would also ask the city attorney to go to court against Martin Settles, the owner of 7631 Commodore Circle, for failing to clear up 34 violations he was cited for last October.

The city’s move to prosecute culminates almost five months of negotiations with Commodore Circle landlords to clean up what officials have called Huntington Beach’s worst street. Situated in the middle of two modern condominium developments, it is an anomaly on the city’s suburban landscape.

Housing officials initially ordered the owners to clean up more than 700 housing code violations in October, including overcrowded conditions. Seeing little change on the street, the city issued a final ultimatum to make the repairs by Monday.

James Palin, the city’s director of development, said he will file Tully’s report with the city attorney’s office today and repeated his pledge “to go the full nine yards” to prosecute.

“Our usual policy is to have a compliance hearing but I think in this case it will be a useless task,” said City Atty. Hutton, adding that she could file court papers against the four landlords as early as two weeks from now.

“The landowners have been given every opportunity (to comply). I believe their compliance period has been exhausted.”

A violation of the housing code is a misdemeanor, punishable by six months in jail, a $500 fine or both.

None of the four landlords could be reached for comment Monday.

However, some of the other owners were on hand Monday as Tully made her rounds.

Bruce Bender, a Huntington Beach real estate agent who represents Cervantes, Muse and Cortez, looked on as she made her way through his clients’ apartments.

When Tully pulled out a bucket from under the kitchen sink at 7662 Commodore Circle and asked how recently Bender had sprayed for bugs, Bender gestured toward the Vietnamese family in the living room and quipped, “Hey, those are their pets. Don’t let them out.”

Midway through Tully’s inspection, Bender passed her a handwritten note asking for an extension of time and then drove off.

Earlier in the day, Charles Hart, a Pacific Palisades lawyer who owns four buildings on the street, accompanied Tully as his workers continued to make repairs.

“I didn’t know it was this bad. . . ,” said Hart, who expects to spend about $40,000 on his buildings. “This isn’t my major business.”

Tully gave Hart a one-week extension to complete his work and said it would serve no purpose to prosecute him, as he had made “tremendous progress” in his units.

Tully gave a similar passing grade and one-week extension to East West Federal Bank, Richard Bartlett and Sam Giacoletti. Owners Raul Garcia and Nghia Trong Le were given a “clean bill of health” by Tully.

Tully is expected to finish inspecting the last of the buildings today.